I hope one day when I opened up this blog again, I will have another inspiring story to share.
Good day, pal!
Today I will share my experience as BOD (Board of Directors) of XL Axiata on 24th to 28th Nov 2014. This is dedicated to all of my supportive friends that demanded a good story from me. (hehehe :p)
I will first tell you what this program is about.
"XL CEO Challenge are designed by XL Axiata to challenge top youth around Indonesia to be the CEO of XL Axiata Tbk for one full week. During this program, the 3 selected winners of XL CEO Challenge will receive facilities like a CEO, taking responsibility like a CEO, and make decision like a CEO. After this program, the winner will receive a certificate stated that they are the CEO of XL Axiata and a gift as a reward for being the CEO of XL Axiata."
At first, the BOC (Board of Commissioners), the panelist, will only choose 3 students to get this priceless opportunity, yet eventually they choose top 4 for this opportunity.
So now. How do you get this opportunity clar? Where do you know it from? How is the selection process?
I know this program when I joined XL Roadshow in Universitas Indonesia (UI) months ago (April? May?). They tell me that only 3 top students in Indonesia will be chosen and I was like, "what? how could I possibly be chosen? I must be crazy for joining this program." But you know, when I opened the website to register at first, I was thinking, "I will give this a shot. Nothing to lose clar, nothing to lose."
So, the selection process consists of:
1. Essay - you should submit an essay that consists of 500 CHARACTERS (yes, not 500 words). It is super simple, super short, and concise. Theme: Why you should be chosen as CEO of XL Axiata.
Besides that, you should submit some documents online; picture of your KTP, yourself, your student card. You should submit your GPA too.
2. Video - top 200 students will be selected to the second selection. They should submit a two-minute video in which they have their speech speaking about why they should be chosen.
Yes, I did this one too. Hehe. You can see my hard-to-create video.
3. Interview - top 10 students will be invited to a conference video call to do the interview with the BOCs. They will be exposed with several questions in 15 minutes sharp.
(I hardly learnt and memorized the products and the current news about XL at that time HAHAHHAA)
And.......yes, I got it!
I was so excited at that time when I know that I made it. I was laughing and smiling and imagining all of the new things I will encounter. Oh my God.
The time finally arrived.
In XL Future Leaders 1 graduation (and XLFL 3 welcoming event), there was the video announcing the winners of XL CEO Challenge. It was nerve-wrecking. Knowing that every pair of eyes in that room were focusing on the announcement video right in front of hundreds students that were enthusiastic on who are chosen - I was so, so, so, nervous. Finally, Akhsani Indra Waskita (UGM) is chosen as CEO, Anthony Soehartono (IBMT) is chosen as CDSO/Chief Digital Service Officer, Hasnan Chatim (ITB) is chosen as CSMO/Chief Service Management Officer, and I am chosen as CCO/Chief Commerce Officer.
Later, when we are invited to step up to the stage, I was surprised to the task being assigned to me; to achieve IDR 23 trillions as revenue in the end of 2014.
I was like, "WHAT?!". I thought I will be 'tail'-ing the actual CEO and take a peek on what they do in daily basis. But I was wrong. I will actually 'be' the CCO of XL Axiata in some roles that the actual CCO really performs.
Soon after that, on that particular day, Sunday (23/11), I met with Mr. Fachri (I called him Ka Fachri, Mas Fachri, Om Fachri, depends on the situation) at Graha XL. He fetched four of us with a black shiny Alphard. (I had only ride Alphard once and this was the second time for me after months taking bus and train as a student in Jakarta)
I should say four of us tried to remain calm and not to be amazed too much by the luxury that Alphard could show you. (although we did take a pic with my tongsis(selfie stick) high up over Alphard's roof, which can be opened. #sorryforthealayness
Then, we arrived at a salon in Menteng area. The salon is extremely luxurious and from the aroma when we first came in, I knew that this must be an expensive salon. Long story short, we had makeover (I swore to you that Sani (the selected CEO) totally transformed to a handsome young CEO) and all of us are transformed to the professional young BODs (at least from our look(s)).
Soon after that, we went to have dinner in a restaurant called Bluegrass (if I'm not mistaken it was in Bakrie Tower) to receive briefing on our schedule for the upcoming week with Mas Dipta. And after we're done, we departed to our(?) apartment, which is Aston Rasuna. The apartment is not that luxurious, but it is comfortable with a living room and kitchen inside (which we do not enjoy because we barely have time in apartment).
In each room, we are exposed to four/five pairs of new business attires! *thumbs up
So those are basically all of the facilities and accommodations that we got right before we start our week as BODs. Because it will be too long to explain what we did every single day, I will explain roughly what we did in that week.
We first had BOD induction from the BOC (Board of Commissioners) and CEO of XL Axiata, Pak Hasnul Suhaimi. We obtained priceless lessons on what we should actually possess as a true leader, and what a C-level professional should actually do in daily basis.
The BOC showed us our office and we are truly excited for that! It was because we got our own name card too! So whenever we meet another people in that week, the name card will show them that we are the C-level executives in XL Axiata (omg how cool is that?!).
Besides, we are also informed about the assignments that we should do and present to Pak Hasnul at our last day as BOD.
CEO: How to improve XL performance
CDSO: How to improve XL Tunai at Universities
CSMO: How to do network quality improvement at universities
CCO: How to increase sales at universities
It may sound simple, but when I have team meeting (with Strategic Sales & Marketing division), I perceived that there are several problems arose that caused the sales in university is somewhat a special case - and the same goes to the other C-level. As a result, we should have something totally out-of-the-box idea to be presented.
-----
We slept around 11pm to 12pm everyday, and woke up 5.30 am to prepare ourselves to be fetched. Our schedule is so packed up, every single hour was scheduled! One moment we will be at Graha XL, the next moment we could be at Menara Prima 1 (XL office) or another place.
We once joined a BOD meeting which is a very exclusive meeting. Even if you worked in XL for years as staff of xxxx division, you are not allowed to be in this meeting, unless you are the BOD or unless a BOD asks you to come and present something. I could not tell you specifically what we discussed in this meeting, but I could tell you it was about the strategic planning and decision making of a particular motion. The people in the BOD meeting are the actual CEO, CCO, CDSO, CSMO, Corp Secretary, and Corp Strategic Division. (Now you see how priceless this experience is to us)
We also had a separate schedule once. CEO (Sani) was sent to Singapore to receive award representing Pak Hasnul, CDSO (Anthony) was sent to Bogor to attend market visit for the students in IPB, CSMO (Hasnan) was sent to Yogyakarta to scan the network quality in that particular area, and the CCO (me) was sent to attend the press conference of Axiata Cup in Jakarta.
Nah, I should tell you that the experience when I attend this press conference as BOD of XL Axiata is totally, totally, priceless for me. No, I don't give any speech or anything like that. It's this little thing that made me smile. I was asked to sit at the first row (which is specifically reserved for us, executives of XL). If I was a student, I may not be given the chance to be in this press conference room, or if I was allowed, I might sit at the very back screaming over Simon Santoso. BUT I was sitting at the very first row!!! Sitting right behind me is, SIMON SANTOSO. I am a huuuggeee fan of badminton and I had only get the chance to see him via TV show! OMG when he was there I was like hardly controlling my fangirling-self inside. Although I don't get the chance to take any photo with him eventually (because it will be strange for a BOD with the uniform as an executive of XL stand up and take a selfie with the athlete when the press conference is occuring right in front of my eye)..... Let that moment be here inside my heart, and my mind..
Back to the track. Another event I attended is RMX meeting at Ritz Carlton Hotel. It is a meeting of Axiata Group, which is a holding company controlling some mobile operators like XL Axiata in Indonesia, Celcom in Malaysia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, and many more. So you can imagine how exclusive this event is, and two unidentified species (which are Anthony and me) were in the meeting and people are like, "Who are these guys? Ah whatever." It was an absolutely amazing experience to listen other telecommunications company present their perspectives or ideas that are implemented in their countries.
Another precious and amazing lessons we got are from the HuaWei, a telecommunications equipment and services company that are in charge of XL network quality. We took a tour in HuaWei offices which are super confidential with the big screen showing quantified data and graphics that made my eyes and brain almost explode hahahahaha! I mean, their work(s) are complicated and novel for me because my background was from Social Science, I do not understand anything about BTS, data transmission, satellite and so on. That's why I got priceless and new information about all of these.
The most important session of this BOD Challenge is......the presentation to Pak Hasnul Suhaimi. The night before, the men barely sleep composing the presentations and practicing because they didn't want to disappoint Pak Hasnul. I was composing mine seriously until 2 am until I realized that all of them fell asleep with their laptop on hahahah! Yes, that's how hard we try to compose our presentation after meeting with our own division and meeting internally (four of us) the days before.
When the last day of our BOD Challenge arrived, we barely had our breakfast. We run to Alphard with bread in our left hands, and sausage in the other. That day is so nerve-wrecking. We barely talk inside Alphard - when the days before we will be chattering on what we will encounter each day. Hasnan and I keep looking at our notes to ensure nothing is left behind, and.................I was the very first person to present my idea to increase sales at universities. I was nervous, but fortunately I could control myself well. The presentation ran smoothly... and although there are some inputs from Pak Hasnul, he said that what we did are 'beyond his expectation'.
*there goes the claps for us*
*all of us put smiles on our faces*
*but nobody knows that we are dying and crying inside because we are so grateful*
I should say that Sani (CEO) is doing a great job here. He is open to any suggestion and he is ready to help us so that all of our presentations are aligned to one another. I am so thankful that he is chosen as our CEO.
Soon after that, we have press conference in which Kompas, MNC, and other media came to ask us some questions regarding our experiences. And we got a surprise! Each of us received one Macbook Air. How could I ask for more, dear XL?
And the next day, we checked out from the apartment and got all of our stuffs packed and arrived at Bunga Rampai Restaurant at Menteng. "Our last super luxurious meal", I thought. But XL never ceased to surprise us, they invited Mr. Rene Suhardono, the inspiring writer of 'Your job is not your career' and 'Your Journey to be the Ultimate U'. He gave us words of inspiration and he was also my reason to write up this story as soon as possible. Thank you Mr.Rene, you do inspire me to do better in life.
Lastly, I want to send my deepest gratitude to all of the people that had been helping me for that week. Thankyou Pak Hasnul, Bu Turina, Bu Ita, Pak Johnson, Pak Wim, Pak Gede, Pak Budi, Pak Ongki, Mba Ayu, Mba Icha, Mas Fachri, Ka Tidar, Miss Deedee, and of course my forever good pals, Anthony, Sani, and Hasnan. Thank you that you had been a part of my life, one of the best part.
Fuhh -------
For the people that read this long post till this paragraph, thank you. Thank you for reading my priceless journey and experience. I have some thoughts for you, and this is what I got from the experience as the CCO of XL Axiata.
What I mainly learn is, as a C-level, you do not work in the operational level, nor the tactical level. You work in the strategic level. The strategies comes from your mind, and you make decision whether it is the best, or not.
All of us should prepare ourselves to take decision in strategic level, not to work as the executor only.
Many students believe, "I will be an accountant one day!" "I think being a staff in creative agency is cool!" "My dream is to be an architect!" "I want to be a Public Relations!". You are thinking at the tactical level --- or I should say operational level.
But I should say, you are more special than that. You possess your own passion and talent that makes you unique. You should have something more to be your dream job. You should be brave enough to say, "I will be CEO of this multinational company". or "I wi change the world in this area with my own way."
Never think that it is impossible for you to be the CEO of XL Axiata, or any multinational big company. CEO, should understand how it feels and how it works from the lowest position to the highest position - to truly be a leader.
With that mindset, one day when you are working as a technician in a particular company for example, you will know that one day, you will be in that top level. For now, you are just learning how lower-level employee works first.
But if your dream is only to stay there, you will be stuck there because you feel that it is all you have ever wanted.
I am still learning, and I am the same with you. I am only a little bit lucky enough to jump from the phases and take a peek from the top on what I should prepare from today. I wish all of you the very best luck, and I know you will be successful.
Remember, that it is not about your willingness to take the chance. It is about your readiness to take the chance.
Claristy
I should say four of us tried to remain calm and not to be amazed too much by the luxury that Alphard could show you. (although we did take a pic with my tongsis(selfie stick) high up over Alphard's roof, which can be opened. #sorryforthealayness
Then, we arrived at a salon in Menteng area. The salon is extremely luxurious and from the aroma when we first came in, I knew that this must be an expensive salon. Long story short, we had makeover (I swore to you that Sani (the selected CEO) totally transformed to a handsome young CEO) and all of us are transformed to the professional young BODs (at least from our look(s)).
Soon after that, we went to have dinner in a restaurant called Bluegrass (if I'm not mistaken it was in Bakrie Tower) to receive briefing on our schedule for the upcoming week with Mas Dipta. And after we're done, we departed to our(?) apartment, which is Aston Rasuna. The apartment is not that luxurious, but it is comfortable with a living room and kitchen inside (which we do not enjoy because we barely have time in apartment).
In each room, we are exposed to four/five pairs of new business attires! *thumbs up
So those are basically all of the facilities and accommodations that we got right before we start our week as BODs. Because it will be too long to explain what we did every single day, I will explain roughly what we did in that week.
We first had BOD induction from the BOC (Board of Commissioners) and CEO of XL Axiata, Pak Hasnul Suhaimi. We obtained priceless lessons on what we should actually possess as a true leader, and what a C-level professional should actually do in daily basis.
The BOC showed us our office and we are truly excited for that! It was because we got our own name card too! So whenever we meet another people in that week, the name card will show them that we are the C-level executives in XL Axiata (omg how cool is that?!).
Besides, we are also informed about the assignments that we should do and present to Pak Hasnul at our last day as BOD.
CEO: How to improve XL performance
CDSO: How to improve XL Tunai at Universities
CSMO: How to do network quality improvement at universities
CCO: How to increase sales at universities
It may sound simple, but when I have team meeting (with Strategic Sales & Marketing division), I perceived that there are several problems arose that caused the sales in university is somewhat a special case - and the same goes to the other C-level. As a result, we should have something totally out-of-the-box idea to be presented.
-----
We slept around 11pm to 12pm everyday, and woke up 5.30 am to prepare ourselves to be fetched. Our schedule is so packed up, every single hour was scheduled! One moment we will be at Graha XL, the next moment we could be at Menara Prima 1 (XL office) or another place.
We once joined a BOD meeting which is a very exclusive meeting. Even if you worked in XL for years as staff of xxxx division, you are not allowed to be in this meeting, unless you are the BOD or unless a BOD asks you to come and present something. I could not tell you specifically what we discussed in this meeting, but I could tell you it was about the strategic planning and decision making of a particular motion. The people in the BOD meeting are the actual CEO, CCO, CDSO, CSMO, Corp Secretary, and Corp Strategic Division. (Now you see how priceless this experience is to us)
We also had a separate schedule once. CEO (Sani) was sent to Singapore to receive award representing Pak Hasnul, CDSO (Anthony) was sent to Bogor to attend market visit for the students in IPB, CSMO (Hasnan) was sent to Yogyakarta to scan the network quality in that particular area, and the CCO (me) was sent to attend the press conference of Axiata Cup in Jakarta.
Nah, I should tell you that the experience when I attend this press conference as BOD of XL Axiata is totally, totally, priceless for me. No, I don't give any speech or anything like that. It's this little thing that made me smile. I was asked to sit at the first row (which is specifically reserved for us, executives of XL). If I was a student, I may not be given the chance to be in this press conference room, or if I was allowed, I might sit at the very back screaming over Simon Santoso. BUT I was sitting at the very first row!!! Sitting right behind me is, SIMON SANTOSO. I am a huuuggeee fan of badminton and I had only get the chance to see him via TV show! OMG when he was there I was like hardly controlling my fangirling-self inside. Although I don't get the chance to take any photo with him eventually (because it will be strange for a BOD with the uniform as an executive of XL stand up and take a selfie with the athlete when the press conference is occuring right in front of my eye)..... Let that moment be here inside my heart, and my mind..
Back to the track. Another event I attended is RMX meeting at Ritz Carlton Hotel. It is a meeting of Axiata Group, which is a holding company controlling some mobile operators like XL Axiata in Indonesia, Celcom in Malaysia, Dialog in Sri Lanka, and many more. So you can imagine how exclusive this event is, and two unidentified species (which are Anthony and me) were in the meeting and people are like, "Who are these guys? Ah whatever." It was an absolutely amazing experience to listen other telecommunications company present their perspectives or ideas that are implemented in their countries.
Another precious and amazing lessons we got are from the HuaWei, a telecommunications equipment and services company that are in charge of XL network quality. We took a tour in HuaWei offices which are super confidential with the big screen showing quantified data and graphics that made my eyes and brain almost explode hahahahaha! I mean, their work(s) are complicated and novel for me because my background was from Social Science, I do not understand anything about BTS, data transmission, satellite and so on. That's why I got priceless and new information about all of these.
The most important session of this BOD Challenge is......the presentation to Pak Hasnul Suhaimi. The night before, the men barely sleep composing the presentations and practicing because they didn't want to disappoint Pak Hasnul. I was composing mine seriously until 2 am until I realized that all of them fell asleep with their laptop on hahahah! Yes, that's how hard we try to compose our presentation after meeting with our own division and meeting internally (four of us) the days before.
When the last day of our BOD Challenge arrived, we barely had our breakfast. We run to Alphard with bread in our left hands, and sausage in the other. That day is so nerve-wrecking. We barely talk inside Alphard - when the days before we will be chattering on what we will encounter each day. Hasnan and I keep looking at our notes to ensure nothing is left behind, and.................I was the very first person to present my idea to increase sales at universities. I was nervous, but fortunately I could control myself well. The presentation ran smoothly... and although there are some inputs from Pak Hasnul, he said that what we did are 'beyond his expectation'.
*there goes the claps for us*
*all of us put smiles on our faces*
*but nobody knows that we are dying and crying inside because we are so grateful*
I should say that Sani (CEO) is doing a great job here. He is open to any suggestion and he is ready to help us so that all of our presentations are aligned to one another. I am so thankful that he is chosen as our CEO.
Soon after that, we have press conference in which Kompas, MNC, and other media came to ask us some questions regarding our experiences. And we got a surprise! Each of us received one Macbook Air. How could I ask for more, dear XL?
And the next day, we checked out from the apartment and got all of our stuffs packed and arrived at Bunga Rampai Restaurant at Menteng. "Our last super luxurious meal", I thought. But XL never ceased to surprise us, they invited Mr. Rene Suhardono, the inspiring writer of 'Your job is not your career' and 'Your Journey to be the Ultimate U'. He gave us words of inspiration and he was also my reason to write up this story as soon as possible. Thank you Mr.Rene, you do inspire me to do better in life.
Lastly, I want to send my deepest gratitude to all of the people that had been helping me for that week. Thankyou Pak Hasnul, Bu Turina, Bu Ita, Pak Johnson, Pak Wim, Pak Gede, Pak Budi, Pak Ongki, Mba Ayu, Mba Icha, Mas Fachri, Ka Tidar, Miss Deedee, and of course my forever good pals, Anthony, Sani, and Hasnan. Thank you that you had been a part of my life, one of the best part.
Fuhh -------
For the people that read this long post till this paragraph, thank you. Thank you for reading my priceless journey and experience. I have some thoughts for you, and this is what I got from the experience as the CCO of XL Axiata.
What I mainly learn is, as a C-level, you do not work in the operational level, nor the tactical level. You work in the strategic level. The strategies comes from your mind, and you make decision whether it is the best, or not.
All of us should prepare ourselves to take decision in strategic level, not to work as the executor only.
Many students believe, "I will be an accountant one day!" "I think being a staff in creative agency is cool!" "My dream is to be an architect!" "I want to be a Public Relations!". You are thinking at the tactical level --- or I should say operational level.
But I should say, you are more special than that. You possess your own passion and talent that makes you unique. You should have something more to be your dream job. You should be brave enough to say, "I will be CEO of this multinational company". or "I wi change the world in this area with my own way."
Never think that it is impossible for you to be the CEO of XL Axiata, or any multinational big company. CEO, should understand how it feels and how it works from the lowest position to the highest position - to truly be a leader.
With that mindset, one day when you are working as a technician in a particular company for example, you will know that one day, you will be in that top level. For now, you are just learning how lower-level employee works first.
But if your dream is only to stay there, you will be stuck there because you feel that it is all you have ever wanted.
I am still learning, and I am the same with you. I am only a little bit lucky enough to jump from the phases and take a peek from the top on what I should prepare from today. I wish all of you the very best luck, and I know you will be successful.
Remember, that it is not about your willingness to take the chance. It is about your readiness to take the chance.
Claristy
Me and Mr.Rene Suhardono
My name card!
Yes, this is our craziness.
Press conference at Axiata Cup.
Our last day. I will never forget them.
I forgot to mention that my 20th birthday is celebrated in XL! They are the best in surprises.
Source: Okezone
And here is the link to the video (summary of the selection process):
